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a game

I’m playing this game today called “bounce between the
cashier’s office, registrar’s office, and financial aid office and see who you
can piss off the most.” It’s close, but I think they’re winning.

So, to shore up my mental levees against the rising tide of
tasks, I’ve got to sit down here and lay out the things I need to do.

1. Work on conference paper. It needs tightening all around,
but writing this conclusion requires me to clarify (situate in the literature) all my references and allusions to middle class values. Need to review some
classic literature, read some relatively newer stuff, and write it all out. The
knock-on effect of this articulation is that it will have to be incorporated
back into chapter 2 (whence this paper comes), and will be key to the
introduction that I am trying to conceptualize and write.

2. Work on the “mission to the slaves” section of chapter 1.
I’ve been catching up on old and new stuff there, too. I don’t have to reinvent
the wheel on this topic, but it will be about four pages and will go something
like this—“mission to the slaves” is part of the larger denominational
institutionializing trend this chapter covers—explore the adaptations that the
Concord Presbytery made to Jones’ and Capers’ efforts—and conclude that there
is not much evidence if, or how, ordinary people participated in this
missionary program, but the denominations did vigorously adopt and promulgate
the ethic of Christian slaveholding
in Piedmont, North Carolina.

3. I’m scheduled for two classes at the Community College
starting in late September—they call it a “mini-mester:” World History I and
II. They’re hybrid classes, so half face-to-face and half online. Subject and
format are entirely new to me, so I’m not only working on figuring out Moodle 2
and online teaching and assessment in general, but working on syllabi, and
reading the textbooks so I can work out a calendar and, um, learn the first
thing about World history. Not sure
how many students are in these classes (but the rooms look like they hold no
more than thirty) or what type they are (I got used to night class students,
but they seem to have their own quirks and personalities different from daytime
students…from what I remember), so I’m feeling a little bit blind.

4. Work on introduction. Dr. Advisor is getting anxious for
me to have this down on paper, and while it is behind the first three things in
priority, it is burning a hole in my mental space. I’ve been drafting some
things up, but it has a long way to go.

5. A whole raft of incidental stuff that I’m either
forgetting, or just not telling you about.

Now I just got to keep eating Big Lots pasta, and fend off the
bill collectors for a little while longer.